The Gymnasium

Penises everywhere. Sitting in a damp, sweaty locker room surrounded by walking, wrinkled prunes of men with graying hair and glasses—whom, did I mention, are naked—is not how I envisioned adulthood to be like.

At least put on your underwear, Mr. Geriatric, when you raise your right leg and firmly plant your foot on the bench near me to stretch your hamstrings, your toes wiggling with dreams of past alacrity.

I lose focus when I come here, and supposedly I come here to find it.

The college gymnasium wasn’t like this, no. We rabid brainiacs staved off all those 50-plus cake candle bearers with our shiny skin pulled taut across our cheeks. The towel racks? Ours. The handball courts? Youth-owned and operated.

Life is different with the elderly in my life, baring all. College wasn’t like this. I miss it.

Moment of Silence

Stanfurd wins Big Game, capping Cal's collapse

Berkeley Bureaucracy: Endless Hauntings

I need a transcript stating my conferred degree to get a full-time teaching salary.

5. When are degrees posted to the transcript?

Degrees are posted approximately three months after the end of the term.

Even after graduation, Berkeley continues to ruin my life.

Anonymous Confessions Online

In case you're not in the know, the Spring 2007 Berkeley Anonymous Confessions is online. Come procrastinate studying--or if you have come to terms with your inability to study, come spend your freetime-- by reading others' secrets. And post your own....

My Graduation Speech

In light of impending finals and tomorrow's graduation ceremony, I'll take this moment to quickly address my college years: I loved every minute, every challenge, every chance for failure here at this institution, and I know that success would not have come had I not picked myself up after hitting rock bottom time after time. There is no stopping someone that can survive Cal.

I wrote the following as a speech addressed to my peers at graduation, but it was considered too traditional and subsequently nixed from the event. I certainly hope you are not offended by its appearance here, as its author might be of the traditional variety:

Good afternoon! I would like to take a quick moment to dedicate this speech to those who have had a lasting impact on my life: to Mom, to Dad, my sisters, Tata, the rest of my friends and family,

And to you. To all of you, sitting here before me, behind me, above me. All of you.

Seniors, this is our graduation. As some will say, this is the end of our time together; this is where our lives begin. On the verge of this new frontier, let us stop and ask ourselves, is this really the end?

Let us ask ourselves, why are we all here today?

It’s not just because we earned enough units to declare candidacy. It’s not just because we want to shake the Dean’s hand, although he is a great guy and all.

Seniors, we are here because we have grown—spiritually, emotionally, physically, mentally, entirely. We are all, in nearly every aspect, different from our freshman counterparts a few years ago, and we have everyone here to thank.

In the time we have remaining before we each strut across this stage, I want you to think of all the people you ought to thank. Start now. Make a mental note of any person that has made a difference in your life. Think of all of the important character-defining interactions you’ve had in your college career, and pinpoint the person responsible. As you continue with this mental exercise—and don’t worry, it’s not graded— you might miss quite a few names from your list. Also ask for the names of every person sitting in your row, the girl across from you, the guy 3 seats behind you, and every other capped and gowned smiling student along with those close to them, as you’ll need to include all of them in your list, too.

Seniors, all of us sitting here are sitting here as Berkeley’s Class of 2007. Though our college careers have spanned multiple semesters of work and more work, we may not all know each other, and we may assume that the strangers we sit near are insignificant in our lives, but feel confident in each of your abilities to influence the growth of others around you. We each have created a tangled web of interactions with those who are close to us, and they in turn have done the same with others. We are all connected to one another, like a supportive web that threads through each of us. That’s how we have matured.

Through every problem set that had us collaborating together into all hours of the night, using books as study tools and pillows, where we all wore the same bags under our eyes in class the next day, that’s how we have matured.

Through every botched exam where we grieved with friends and family, and where they rescued us with enough kind words to make our grades seem like distant relics of the past, that’s how we have matured.

Through every moment that sparked any whim of competition between us, to nab that sweet summer job, to attain that elusive grade, that’s how we have matured.

By adapting to our environment and our situations, we in turn influence each other to adapt to us, and to learn from us. You all are in one way or another, directly or indirectly, the reason that I could develop enough composure and confidence over the years to address you today. And I am in one way or another the reason that you all are still paying attention to this speech. Hopefully.

Because I feel it of utmost importance to dissipate this rumor that with graduation comes the end of our time together. There is literally nothing final about today! We are here celebrating our class connection and how we have grown from it, and we must recognize that we would not be here as we are today were it not for all of us. We will always have our memories and our relations close at hand and heart, even if in the years ahead we forget who our old friends and acquaintances were. Whether we keep in touch or not does not change the fact that we have each made an indelible mark on ourselves, by merely experiencing life together. There is no justification to call this a conclusion, because these years of memories will continue to shape our lives forever.

We are here because we have grown together. We are here to celebrate our relations. We are here to recognize how significant these impressions have been.

And lastly, we leave here knowing that we shared our lives with the brightest minds of our generation. We must realize that this provides us with much responsibility for our society, responsibility for catalyzing the change we want to see in our world.

We must create a lasting impact on our future communities in the same way that we have done for each other, to share with others what we have experienced here.

Congratulations Graduates, and Thank You! Go Bears!

Boy in the Bubble

Pollen.com says the misery will soon lessen:

Science Outreach

We could also use more outreach programs like these put together than a few new Bio1A labs:

Third-grade students at Berkeley's Oxford Elementary School overcame the gross factor to touch a pig's liver during an anatomy lesson last week run by UC Berkeley undergrads in Professor Marian Diamond's Anatomy Enrichment Program.

Encouraging undergraduates to apply their studies outside of the lecture hall and to promote science in the community, such as in a classroom like this, is just as worthwhile as inspiring them to research: it helps give science a voice and could inspire kids to pursue science later in their lives. Teaching is also a great way to learn about a subject, which would also reinforce the quality of education Berkeley undergraduates are acquiring.

East Bay Overpass Collapses

Oh fuck.

A huge ball of fire from an exploding gasoline tanker truck caused an overpass in the MacArthur Maze in the East Bay near the Bay Bridge to collapse on top of the highway below early Sunday, virtually ensuring major traffic problems and confusion for weeks to come.

"We're screwed, huh? That's going to be rough on everybody," said Joe Dorey, 55, an engineer who lives in Oakland.

Yup, particularly family and friends coming up for graduation in a couple weeks(!) It's like driving in Berkeley wasn't bad enough, and then the highway explodes. Great. Just great.

Expanding Science

Here's an article about the recent advances in biology and how Berkeley is responding:

While the Human Genome Project required some 13 years and $2.7 billion taxpayer dollars, Rine predicts that within ten years, the average American will be able to have his or her personal genome sequenced for less than $1,000.

...

Ironically, the very advances that have opened these new vistas into the life sciences have left a key component of Berkeley's undergraduate biology program lagging behind. More than 1,200 undergraduates per year take the Introductory Biology course, also known as Bio1A. This instructional behemoth includes a laboratory component that runs more like an aircraft carrier with great momentum but one that has difficulty changing course.

This state of affairs won't last for long. Last April, Rine was awarded $1 million by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute expressly to revamp Bio1A's labs.

I'm perplexed as to why an introductory biology lab needs to change because of advancements made in genomics. Regardless of what genes control what biological pathways, Bio1A will still need to focus on the fundamentals of biology lab work to prepare students for possible future research careers. Those fundamentals can be taught with or without an extra $1 million, as they have been taught in the past. Since the money is not needed to necessarily teach the subject matter, it only serves to develop lab assignments into more interesting lessons, albeit the lessons will be the same.

Will this instill interest in research and encourage more students to pursue research? Probably, to some extent. But is it the most worthwhile of expenditures the biology department can muster? With about 1,200 students taking the course each year, $1 million could be better spent on reinforcing the quality of education for all students, by offering subsidized note-taking services, employing more tutors, and adding more review sessions. It could also be used to set up new undergraduate research programs that recruit students in the class and place them into various labs on campus. We have something like this already, but it's not specialized for biology and it's just too competitive (hundreds of applicants for only a handful of positions).

These ideas wouldn't cost much but might have a greater impact: students will feel more supported in their studies and will also have higher access to new opportunities. New labs are nice, but we have bigger issues to deal with.

Fellow Seniors:

Knowing that there are exactly 2 weeks left of class in this semester, and also knowing that this is my last semester, I have deduced for the umpteenth time that I am graduating oh-so soon.

If you are in the same predicament and are also failing to realize it, here are some reminders for what you should be doing now:

1) Take Senior Pictures. You and your kin will likely want to remember who you were when you finished here, so have some professional pictures taken of yourself. If you choose not to buy them, they will still be placed in the yearbook to commemorate your college career. Schedule an appointment online. Here's more information from the office:

Walk-ins are more than welcome and operate on a first-come, first-served basis. The photographer will be taking portraits all week long from 9:00 am – 6:00 pm with the last sitting at 5:30 pm. The April 23 - May 11 session is the last of Senior Portraits sitting for the year. If your friends haven't gotten their portraits taken by the 11th, they won't make it into the yearbook!

2) Buy the Blue & Gold Yearbook. If you can afford textbooks you can surely handle just one more pricey book. You ought to keep at least one book that you'll actually enjoy reading later on, and this could be it.

3) Graduation Fair. Be sure to pick up convocation tickets, caps and gowns, and various other items such as personalized graduation announcements, class rings, and diploma frames. This is going on 10a-4p today, Wednesday, and Thursday on Lower Sproul.

4) Plan on Attending Commencement Convocation. I am amazed at how many of my friends are planning on skipping this graduation event. It's the best time to celebrate graduation together with friends from outside your major. Also, you might as well take advantage of the one time Berkeley is actually going to reward you for surviving the past few years here. The degree is great, but why not also enjoy some of the honor in the ceremony? Hope to see you there on May 9th!

5) Look up More Information. Because I won't do it all for you. Check the Seniors website and even this engineering website that snootily claims to have all you need to know to graduate.

"Orange and Maroon Effect" this Friday

The VT tragedy that took place on Monday is not a thing I am currently capable of putting words to, to give definition or to express solace. What must carry us all through this time is mutual love and respect, be it visible to many or as silent as prayer.

This Friday, April 20th, has been declared "a statewide day of mourning for the victims of Monday’s tragedy at Virginia Tech."

On Friday, Governor Kaine will participate in an interfaith prayer service in Monroe Park on the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. He has encouraged other communities in Virginia and across the nation to hold their own simultaneous ceremonies and participate in prayer services, beginning with the ringing of bells at noon, eastern daylight savings time.

That day is also being declared an "Orange and Maroon Effect" day:




Wear orange and maroon on Friday.

ASUC Elections

In case you haven't heard (or smelled a peculiar stench), ASUC electioneering is now finished and the voting polls are open until Friday night. Vote online to help make the ordeal more bearable.

And vote CalServe. Please.

Soundtracks and Copyrights

I apologize for the dearth of new content, but this dark phase continues for another week.

In the meantime, Andrew's siren song of a mythical place where one can download video game soundtracks is juxtaposed in time next to a threat sent by Cal to its crew of mangy pirate students:

Dear Student,

Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), copying and sharing copyrighted materials without permission is illegal.

[...blah blah blah...]

To comply with the law and to protect yourself from possible litigation, we strongly encourage you to remove illegally-obtained copyrighted material from your computer, and to stop downloading copyrighted material illegally if you do so now.

A curious brow I raise: I understand that the only reason I am getting this warning from my university is due to the RIAA's recently increased fervor in nabbing college students in the act of bringing sexy back and sharing it with all of their friends. Just a week ago, 405 pre-litigation settlement letters were sent to colleges across the nation. Berkeley received 19 notices. Sucks to be you, guys.

What I would like to understand more is the risk involved in downloading other forms of copyrighted media. Is there a Video Game Soundtrack Association of Japan that is just as interested in protecting producers' and artists' rights as the RIAA? Does downloading the Zelda theme song make me a bad person? A nerd, maybe, but also an easy target for lawsuits?

I know it still is considered illegal, but who, if anyone, pursues flagrant videogame soundtrack piracy? Inquiring minds want answers!

And some respite from midterms.

Pangs of Spring Break-itis

...have pointed me in the opposite direction of my to-do list, so here's a video of belligerent frat boys.

"It's quite funny because it's like, what the hell is there to fight about at Cal."

Something's Rotten in the State of Cal

ASUC election seasons are not an acquired taste. Having gone through 3 in the past, I'm not exactly squealing with delight to be dragged into another. There's always a vile scent of deception that overwhelms the senses throughout the month of April. Sure, maybe it's partly due to the curious soaking wet remnants of Telegraph, but it's mostly the ASUC campaigns.

Another month of deception. Deceiving hall staff by sneaking materials into the residence halls. Deceiving passing students walking to class with campaign literature that skews reality. Deceiving all of us even through Facebook, a testament to their alignment with Satan himself, no doubt. C'mon future political leaders, by what standards are we judging our friends when we have 1000+ 'friends' on the Facebook 2 years into our college experience?

Don't get me started, Presidential Candidate #1 and others like you.

To know the names of other phonies that will be representing the student body next year, check out Beetle's candidate list.

Hawking's Visit

Another quick note, just to make sure everyone remembers: check out a full webcast of Stephen Hawking's Berkeley lecture from this past Tuesday, on the origins of the universe. The man is truly incredible for the feats he has achieved.

And here's an inspirational look into his life. Choice words:

One's voice is very important. If you have a slurred voice, people are likely to treat you as mentally deficient: Does he take sugar? This synthesiser is by far the best I have heard, because it varies the intonation, and doesn't speak like a Dalek. The only trouble is that it gives me an American accent.

Berkeley Marina Clean-Up

I participated in a service project today at the Berkeley Marina, and spent part of the day cleaning up the shoreline, being introduced to the ocean's toilet bowl and the power of plastics, and learning about a house made of straw.

Earlier today, a crew of 20 of us swarmed parts of the coastline at the Marina, picking out trash accumulated on and around the rocks. I'd like to be exaggerating when I say this, but in an hour we literally removed a total of 10 heavy bags of flotsam from the shoreline. Plastics made up the bulk of what we found, mainly food packaging and assorted bags, along with the occasional hypodermic needle.

Our coastline is sometimes referred to as "the rim of the toilet bowl" due to proximity to the North Pacific Gyre, a phenomenon of the Pacific Ocean's currents that traps floating waste into a large swirling swath of area between Hawaii and the West Coast. Waste accumulates in its large center, and occasionally spills out onto nearby coastlines, such as ours, and deposits presents for motivated college students like ourselves to pick up.

Normally waste stuck in this never-flushing toilet bowl will, over time, biodegrade.

[Enter, Plastics].

Plastics do not biodegrade, but instead break up into smaller and smaller pieces, until their likeness to small foodstuffs that the lower food chain prey on is uncanny. They enter the food chain, and bring with them a number of health issues, such as introducing toxic pollutants attached to their surface. In this swirling toilet bowl the issue is most prominent: in the gyre in 2001 it was shown that the mass of plastics exceeded that of zooplankton (the dominant animalian life in the area) by six times.

Today we were also lucky enough to check out the Marina's Straw Bale Building. A "green house", it was made from recycled materials, and is even insulated entirely with straw bales. It is an environmentally-friendly answer to some environmental concerns:

* Forests in the world are declining, lumber costs are high, construction and demolition waste accounts for 20-25% of solid landfill volume.

* Rice straw bales--the primary building material, unlike many other agricultural byproducts, do not decompose quickly under natural conditions. Farmers have had little choice but to burn the leftover material. Over a million tons of rice straw are burned annually in California, releasing 47,000 tons of carbon monoxide into the atmosphere (2nd worst air polluter in California; 1st are cars).

* Energy conservation: the building is fire resistant and provides exceptional insulation, saving heating and cooling costs throughout the year.

All in all today was very productive and educational, not too mention friggin' gorgeous. How 'bout that weather?

A Plea from our Lecture Notes Service

I like transcribed notes. I like them and I like the option to use them as a study aid. I like them so much I'd like to see them continued next semester even when I'm not in Berkeley to benefit:

Dear Subscribers,

Thank you very much for subscribing to ASUC Lecture Notes Online, formerly Black Lightning. We appreciate your purchase and thank you for not sharing your subscription. Note taking will definitely continue in this course through the remainder of the semester.

We have not, however, reached the number of subscriptions needed in this course. We need more and desperately need your help in getting the word out about how great our notes are. The note taker in this course is doing a fantastic job of producing high quality notes each lecture, and our editing team is delivering them consistently to you, our subscribers, by 5 pm the day after lecture.

This ASUC non-profit business does not make money and merely is required to break even each semester. We're not there yet for Spring Semester '07. Each additional subscription we get brings us closer to that goal, and keeps us from going out of business.

Additional subscriptions mean:

- We can take notes in MORE classes next semester.
- We can improve our web site, which was built in 2000 and has many flaws and needs
to be upgraded.
- We can provide more good-paying jobs to Cal students, both graduate and
undergraduate.

To help us out you can do the following:

1. Please tell your friends about our great service
2. Direct them to our website, lecturenotes.berkeley.edu
3. Purchase archived notes (there's a list on the site and these are a great study
aid for other classes)
4. Please don't share your subscription.

Daily Cal and (another) Intro

Welcome to all 7 of you who found this blog from the Daily Cal article "Blogging Berkeley". Yes, please read on in good health and humor and feel free to leave comments and feedback, although I must caution that all of you simply must control your raging Firefox browsers, as bandwidth doesn't grow on trees, y'know. Hippies, yes. Bandwidth: no no no.

I had thought being plugged in a newspaper would feel somewhat more momentous then it does now. But I shan't complain. I'll instead give some background for this blog and this author's ideation.

I started "The Catalytic Triad" in July 2006 as a response to what I've experienced in blogging communities both here in Berkeley and afar, and as a chance for personal growth. Blogging offers an open forum for folks to circulate different perspectives regarding all kinds of issues, and reading these can be as educational as it is enjoyable; there is a wealth of good writing that can be found within many blogs, offering insightful analysis, witty humor, and a powerful voice.

I’m fond of the different perspectives and styles I’ve read from bloggers whom I admire, and so I thought I’d also contribute my voice and perspective to the forum. Writing has also been a great way to sort my thoughts and stances on various issues, and to push myself into being more informed of issues that interest me.

The title of my blog espouses some of my motivations for writing: I believe that science, education, and progressive policy will most effectively promote the formation of a technologically-sound, socially-just, free-thinking society, one that isn't afraid to address questions of where we came from, nor one that acts myopically in its treatment of different cultures and norms. As a student, I choose to act on these by first educating myself, and then by educating others. My blog is one venue for that. My job on Hall Staff is another.

And in the nearby future, Teach For America will also be one. After graduation, I’ll be beginning my summer training to become a teacher, since I will be teaching secondary biology come this September. By that point there will be a million more ideas that I will want to write about. Consequently, this blog has taken up permanent residence for the foreseeable future.

One of my favorite memories of blogging is also one of my worst, because it involves a news story that broke my heart—the tragic story of Melinda Duckett. Writing of her account and the media pundits that disgraced her was a cathartic experience for me: writing gave me a way to express my grief, while the power of blogs allowed my thoughts to reach out and persuade others. The whole experience reinforced the importance of having a persuasive voice in a public forum, and of taking an ardent stand on subjects one feels strongly for.

Blogging Begins

Writing boot camp has begun! Well, not really.

“The Weblog as a Medium for Nonfiction Creative Writing” met for the first time this semester just a few hours ago. Upon arriving at the white-spotted Barrows Hall, a building very becoming of our campus, I followed some dilapidated signage downstairs and across a pale checkered floor to the smallest classroom I’ve ever seen in my life. A walk-in closet with desks. At this point my grand expectations now felt somewhat limited, if you will.

Class started with the characteristic DeCal start: a chatty first-year asks if this is “that one seminar”, passively argues with facilitator about telebears troubles and miscommunication, leaves, and stifled awkwardness ensues.

The classroom size obviously was not a big help at this point: students were forced to sit and face every which way to fit desks/backpacks/bodies/children together, but we managed.

Our facilitator was also new to DeCals, nervous and green with respect to blogs: he’s never made one himself. His intentions are still golden, though, and this class still intends to focus on developing better writers and expanding writing ability within the context of nonfiction writing through peer critiques, workshops, and written prose.

Each week we are expected to write:

1) Separate appraisals for 4 different writing samples from other students to give feedback on writing styles, and

2) 5 entries on any topic that we want, with 1 of these owning some size superiority in relation to our other 4 works, and

3) A 5-10 page final paper on whatevah.

Lots and lots of writing.

Fortunately, of these writing samples, we are unrestricted either in subject or style, so long as we write. This post counts, too. Hell, this might even count for one of those weekly biggies. Maybe this won’t be so difficult.